Christopher Green

South Korea’s 78th Armed Forces Day ceremony on October 1 featured new footage of the Hyunmoo-5 (현무-5) high-power ballistic missile in a promotional video. This marks the third consecutive year that the missile has appeared during the Armed Forces Day parade. However, it was officially labeled only as a “surface-to-surface missile” (지대지미사일) during the event. The Hyunmoo-5 is reportedly designed to carry an 8-ton-class conventional warhead, intended to strike hardened underground facilities such as North Korea’s underground command centers. Former Agency for Defense Development (ADD) Director Ahn Dong-man said in an interview that: “The destructive power of a bomb comes from kinetic energy, which increases with mass and the square of velocity. The Hyunmoo-5 is known to carry a warhead weighing around 8–9 tons, while the U.S. GBU-57 bunker buster weighs approximately 12 tons. The GBU-57 is dropped by a bomber within the atmosphere, whereas the Hyunmoo-5 is a ballistic missile that is boosted by a rocket beyond the atmosphere before rapidly descending at high speed. Since it reaches a much higher altitude, it gains greater gravitational acceleration during its descent. The Hyunmoo-5 can be considered to have one of the highest levels of destructive power among non-nuclear warheads in the world.” source: yna.co.kr/view/AKR2026080313… & youtu.be/fDYRQyqHkZs?t=2995